The Wall House
Architect Reja Bakh and his family has recently become the owner of the well-known prestigious Alice Ball House designed by Philip Johnson and built in 1953 in New Canaan, Conn., an icon of Midcentury Modern architecture. To pay his respect for Philip Johnson, Mr. Reja is designing a contemporary glass house that will be tucked behind the Ball House on the woodsy 2.2-acre site. The Ball House will ultimately become family's art gallery and weekend retreat place.
The Wall House consists of two rectangle cubes arranged in a Z-shape on the site, providing the service function of living room, kitchen & dinning area, one master bedroom, two bedrooms and one family room. These two cubes are separated by one piece of solid stucco wall in between in order to not only define function areas but also keep the privacy of the bedroom space from view. A wood stair connects the living room and the bedrooms. By taking advantage of the terrain height difference, all the facilities rooms like storage, gym, and garage are hidden under the ground, which makes the overall plan to be very clean and simple.
On the facades, the house is decorated with French windows and glass roof. People enjoy the natural sunlight and the transparent modern appearance. A concrete deck leads people from the inner living room to the outdoor garden, from where people can enjoy the nature and the view to the Alice Ball House in the front.
By using a long piece of solid wall, all the private area is separated and hidden from outside. This combination of modernist house with regular living functions without diluting its distinctive features contributes to the balance between harmonious human-scale living environment and modern architecture.
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